Harty on Gus Poyet and Chelsea’s new manager

But I also believe currently it’s very much “work in progress” at the Albion and when Ancelotti was sacked at the end of the season, clearly it was too early for Gus to go to Stamford Bridge and the dreams of the Albion achieving Premiership status under Poyet were still possible.

However, with the news that Chelsea are going to appoint 33-year-old Andre Villas Boas as their new boss, after paying Porto a record £13.25million compensation package, has put a whole new perspective on the matter.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased that, for now, Chelsea have no interest in Gus. But their choice of manager has me thinking, along with a number of Chelsea fans I know, that they would have been better going with a Gus double, Hiddink as director of football and Poyet as team manager.

Despite his obvious success at Porto, there has to be serious question marks over Villas Boas’ experience. Granted he has worked with the “Special One” but that’s clearly not the be all and end all.

His age must be a factor, the same as both Lampard and Drogba. He will arrive at Stamford Bridge in a dressing room full of strong characters, there will either have to be a mass shipping out of the big names, or something drastic will have to happen internally.

Which is why, and I’m am glad they haven’t, they would have been better off going for Poyet. He has both a pedigree at Chelsea, which would command him instant respect, and extensive experience both playing at Chelsea and Spurs and coaching at Spurs, in the Premiership.

The Chelsea fans have been spoilt with the splashing of the Russian money, but like all football fans they are a fickle bunch.

A minimum success for the top clubs in this country is a top-four place.

If they get to November and United, City, Liverpool and perhaps even Arsenal are all going great guns and, more significantly, are above them, will the axe fall again?

I read this week that Chelsea have spent £60million in the last six years hiring and firing managers.

To put that into context, that’s more than Arsenal have spent on players in that time and two-thirds of the total cost of the Amex Stadium.

Clearly, money is no object for Mr Abramovich in the quest for the Champions League, but will this week’s outlay prove to be more money wasted?

Age is clearly catching me up. I met up with former Albion goalkeeping legend Michel Kuipers last week and he told me about Crawley’s end-of-season trip to Las Vegas.

“I met Moseley over there”, he told me and thrust forward his phone to show me a photo.

“That looks nothing like Graham Moseley”, I replied.

“Its Sugar Shane Moseley, the boxer” said Michel, “And who’s Graham Moseley?”

For me, almost déjà vu, because I recall when Sir Oswald Moseley died in October, 1980. Our teacher, principal Mr Chewter, told us that “Moseley was dead” to which my mate Dan Knibb replied: “So who’s going to play in goal on Saturday?”